gpt-5.6-sol
Input price$4
Output price$20
OpenAITextVisionAudio
gpt-5.5
gpt-5.5 is OpenAI's model at $5.00 input and $30.00 output per million tokens, with a 1049K context window. On a typical 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to roughly $11.25 per million tokens, placing it in the premium band of the 68 models tracked here — cheaper than 4% of them.
Context window1049K
Input price$5 / 1M
Output price$30 / 1M
Output speed85 tok/s
Quality score97
Data updatedUpdated Jun 2026
Price verified2026-08-19 · Official
By price, gpt-5.5 ranks 62nd cheapest of 68 on input and 66th on output. Its quality score of 97 ranks 2nd of 68, and on value (quality score ÷ output price) it ranks 63rd of 68. Its blended rate sits 282% above the catalog average.
In real billing terms: a support chatbot handling 50,000 turns a month (2,000 input / 500 output tokens each) costs about $1,250 per month on gpt-5.5, while a RAG workload of 20,000 queries (8,000 input / 800 output tokens each) runs about $1,280. Because output is priced 6.0× input here, long-generation tasks scale cost fastest — cap output length before you optimise anything else.
A 1049K context window holds roughly 1,399 pages of A4 text (at ~750 tokens per page), ranking 2nd of 68 here. That is enough to drop in an entire technical manual or several source files at once, which suits long-document summarization and codebase-wide analysis. Output runs at about 85 tok/s (43rd fastest of 68), acceptable interactively, though long responses will feel slow.
We track 11 OpenAI models, and gpt-5.5's blended rate sits 194% above that provider's average. If your task tolerates a little less headroom, qwen3.8-max (Alibaba) blends about 73% cheaper at a quality score of 94, and is worth benchmarking first. Going the other way, gpt-5.6-sol scores 98 on quality for about 29% less.
Estimated monthly cost
Monthly API spend across four common workloads, next to the cheapest model we track.
| Workload | Usage assumption | This model | Cheapest model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot | 2,000 input / 500 output tokens per turn, 50,000 turns per month | $1,250 | $3.00 |
| RAG document Q&A | 8,000 input / 800 output tokens per query, 20,000 queries per month | $1,280 | $3.84 |
| Coding assistant | 12,000 input / 2,000 output tokens per request, 10,000 requests per month | $1,200 | $3.20 |
| Batch summarization | 4,000 input / 400 output tokens per item, 200,000 items per month | $6,400 | $19 |
Derived directly from the rates on this page. Excludes prompt caching, batch discounts and free tiers.
How it compares
The alternatives worth benchmarking alongside it, from the same dataset.
| Model | Provider | Blended /1M | Quality | Price delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gpt-5.5 | OpenAI | $11.25 | 97 | — |
| qwen3.8-maxCheaper option | Alibaba | $3.00 | 94 | -73% |
| gpt-5.6-solHigher quality | OpenAI | $8.00 | 98 | -29% |
| qwen3.5Best value overall | Alibaba | $0.11 | 91 | -99% |
Best for
ChatbotReasoningMultimodal
Modalities
TextVisionAudio
Where it fits — and where it doesn't
Good fit
- Reasoning: multi-step decomposition, planning and tasks that need rigorous inference.
- Chat and support: natural multi-turn conversation for user-facing products.
- Long documents: a 1049K window ingests a full contract, paper or large codebase in one pass.
- Multimodal input: handles images, screenshots and scanned documents directly.
Poor fit
- High-frequency batch jobs: at $11.25 blended per million tokens, bills scale quickly at volume.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the gpt-5.5 API cost?
gpt-5.5 costs $5.00 per million input tokens and $30.00 per million output tokens. On a 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to about $11.25 per million tokens.
What does gpt-5.5 cost per month?
It depends on volume. Using the four worked scenarios on this page: a support chatbot runs about $1,250/month, RAG document Q&A about $1,280/month, a coding assistant about $1,200/month, and batch summarization about $6,400/month. Plug your own token counts into the cost calculator for a tailored figure.
How large is the gpt-5.5 context window?
1049K tokens — roughly 1,399 pages of A4 text at ~750 tokens per page, ranking 2nd of the 68 models tracked here.
gpt-5.5 or qwen3.8-max — which is better value?
qwen3.8-max blends to about $3.00 per million tokens versus $11.25 for gpt-5.5 — roughly 73% cheaper — at a quality score of 94 against 97. If that quality gap does not show up on your task, take the cheaper one; if it does, stay with gpt-5.5. Benchmark both on your own data before deciding.
What is gpt-5.5 best suited for?
Tagged use cases: chatbot, reasoning, multimodal. Reasoning: multi-step decomposition, planning and tasks that need rigorous inference. Less suitable: High-frequency batch jobs: at $11.25 blended per million tokens, bills scale quickly at volume.
How current is this gpt-5.5 pricing?
Pricing here was last verified on 2026-08-19 against official documentation. llmprice.app runs a daily collection job, but providers can change rates between runs — confirm against OpenAI's official pricing page before you commit.
Estimate the real cost of this model
Bring tokens per request and monthly volume into the calculator to compare total model costs.
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Pricing, speed and quality scores change over time. Confirm official documentation before production use.